Desperate people will take desperate measures
ByThe WWF-UK sends me newsletters about the state of our world and the campaigns the organisation is involved in. Their task of trying to stop illegal logging was on today’s list of efforts they are currently working on.
It made me reflect on what drives these illegal activities whether it’s logging, drug dealing, or pirates hijacking ships. The one thing that seems to be central to all of these illegal activities are the foot soldiers.
None of these illegal money making businesses could exist if it were not for the workers carrying the drugs, cutting down trees or trawling the ocean looking for ships to board.
I don’t think that these foot soldiers are necessarily evil people who have always wanted a life of crime.
It is more a case of ordinary people who are desperate to make a living for themselves. Somehow they have slipped through the cracks in terms of working in the real world and now need to take huge risks in order to earn a pittance in the illegal environment.
Surely it’s mostly the foot soldiers who are the ones who get caught. For instance the drug runners, the pirates who board the ships or the hard workers trucking the wood or cutting it down.
The people at the top, the ones really making it, are often left untouched. They have the means to be represented by good legal teams and escape punishment. It’s the entry level crooks who end up taking the blame and the punishment.
If one were to address the issue of employment at the bottom tier of this social strata one would effectively be able to shut down large scale criminal activities. Trying to stop the foot soldiers from working by shutting down illegal operations is not going to do the trick. They are desperate to make a living.
Shutting down one operation will just mean another one will start up somewhere else. Different industry, same principle of using desperate workers to work the business.
The drug industry will never be closed down. Too many poverty stricken people make a living from it. From growing poppies in Afghanistan to the distribution of a few grams of heroin in the city streets the entire chain is dependent on poor workers who have no other way of making a living.
That doesn’t mean I condone any illegal activity just so that poor people can make a living. It’s just that society tends to address the outcome rather than the cause. Without cheap and desperate labour organised crime couldn’t organise itself.
4 Comments
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Although it is true that those at the top of illegal organizations will use those at the bottom to do most of their dirty work for them, I do not think that all of these “foot soldiers” are driven by sheer desperation.
Many, especially in the U.S., are driven by the desire to get ahead by taking what they perceive are short cuts. In their mind, they minimize the risks and overestimate the possible rewards. In the case of illegal activity involving drugs, they often use the illegal activity as a way to get substances for their own use. In other cases, they are unwilling to do what it takes to get ahead legally, and so pursue other paths to what they perceive as success.
“Lucky” Luciano, an American mafioso, and one of the most powerful gangsters of the 20th century was said to have commented that if he had only known how difficult it would have been to make his fortune illegally, he could have done so legally.
He was one of those who had the talent and organizational skills to have done so. Many others do not, have not the drive necessary, or see others enjoying the fruits of illegal activity, and so choose a path that they feel will bring them success. In many cases they are wrong. It is likewise wrong to confuse their poor judgment with desperation borne out of insufficient opportunity.
My .02c
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:06 pm
@How to Get out of Debt
Thanks for your comment. You have a point. There are certainly some that take the criminal route because it seems the fast option.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
The problem looks set to deepen I fear as any relief from the international financial crisis will only be temporary and governments are putting all their ill-founded hopes into a real global economic turnaround. Of course people want to believe in this and many make enormous efforts to ignore the truth and be convinced, they live in hope. More and more of us become increasingly desperate to make ends meet, let alone make a living. The bottom line is that we are too numerous. We are not necessarily too numerous per se, but for the way we have fallen into living in the over-developped, consumerist societies and all those aspiring to emulate our ludicrous habits and consume in the dame fashion - we ARE just too many. Boring and retrograde according to some, but governments are not the only problem. They are more or less weak and feeble these days when it comes to showing the way and are without exception ruled themselves by powerful business interests more or less hidden from the populations concerned.
April 25th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
@Tuesday
Thanks for leaving such a well thought comment. Really appreciate your input.
Agree that we have become accustomed to our way of life and how we make a living by following orders. It makes it really difficult to find a new way of working and earning an income. And as for government. Totally agree that they are run by big business.